February 21, 2020 – Winter life on the Dalmatian coast is a fraction of its summer energy. But not everyone is hibernating, and indeed some are finding very creative ways to fill the void.
Last night, I entered a souvenir shop to find a performing artist was crouching inside a Coca Cola fridge. When not in a fridge in a closed shop on the usually empty-all-winter Zadarska Ulica, Mia Kevo is dancing. Of late, Mia runs choreographed and improvised dance programs for people with disabilities around Croatia. This is one of many local and international artists – including photographers, filmmakers, urbanism researchers, who are part of the program for Culture Hub Croatia’s (CHC) PRAZNINE 2020 – an international artist program, loosely translating to VOIDS 2020. The program makes use of spaces which sit empty in winter due to unsustainable tourism practices – and is sign youth who are gaining expertise outside, are taking steps to change things in their hometowns – and in general, being supported by local businesses who see the need to re-energise coastal cities.
I’m writing this sitting in a pop up coworking space on Bosanska 4 in Split with one of the CHC founders, Marina Batinic, originally from Split and based between her hometown and Brussels. In the summer, this pop up cowork space functions as a souvenir shop – across the Game of Thrones Museum. The owner, Sanja, opened her doors and supports the space for artists initiative. Like so many, hers is a business reliant upon crowds – who disappear by around 1 November. I’m surrounded by handmade items from Dalmatia – from jewelry, paintings, sculptures and behind a brown box a sign for ‘magical bottles’. I’ll have to come back in the Summer to peruse the items for sale. These are the kind of sustainably-minded thinking businesses to support. (Looking out the window, I note even the GoT museum is boarded up). Marina is part of the culture hub trio, also included Jasmina Šarić and Kristina Tešija – all who are making a commitment to bringing international, cultural initiatives to their hometown, operating based on citizen support.
Sitting here with Marina, we discuss the changes we’d like to see and the challenges each of us has encountered – from local mindset, to tiring after swimming against a wave bigger than just a few people. Personally, being a champion for Remote Working and digital nomads (for which this country is an ideal destination) conversations like this are common – if only with a small handful of those ‘taking things into their own hands’. Sometimes, it’s like an inner tennis match going on, when you think about the number of people leaving – and yet, the number interested in coming. So why aren’t these people coming back?
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Infrastructure.
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A lack of faith in a system they left.
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Easier (perhaps) living on greener pastures. But is it, really?
In the last month alone, I have a renewed optimism, from reading and speaking to members of the upcoming Day One tourism conference, and people – with established careers outside of Croatia, choosing Croatia or coming back – coming back due to the need for role models and mentors. In the words of Mate, one such accomplished gentleman among them, “if I don’t who will?” Thank you, Mate. Are there more like you?
To return to the program, which does more than show this is an ideal, if under-utilised place for activity in the off-season, Marina shared more about the motivation and thinking behind PRAZNINE 2020.
“We invited artists from the region because the aim was to bring their artistic production more closer to the people. We’re not used to seeing contemporary art production at all and we don’t really collaborate in the region. We wanted to use arts to facilitate this dialogue and understanding. We have artists from North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia. We want to meet these people and understand their work.
This is why we chose to have ‘open studios’ – even people who don’t understand contemporary art – to make people interact.
These Balkan countries need more dialogue. We wanted to use art as a means [for this].”
CHC are part of a wider international network, and now bringing their international connections to their hometown.
“We didn’t want to limit the program only to the arts and open studios but we opened our calendar to the local community and other civil society organisations who were able to make their proposals for events and organize them in one of these spaces. In this way we allow everyone to shape their own city and gain back the ownership over it.”
Sitting here, our joint guesstimate 60 to 70 per cent of the Split palace and the surrounding area is empty over winter. In setting up for their event, 35 promotional red dot stickers were printed – to be placed on empty “boarded up” businesses. They were used up in a matter of minutes.
For the finalé event, representatives from the European Creative Hubs Network (EHCN), Luka Piskoric from Poligon Ljubljana and Istanbul’s Atölye’s Atılım Şahin are coming. It is a great opportunity to see what is happening with Creative Hubs in the region on a wider scale.
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WORTH RETURNING? IF ONLY THE “VOID” SEASON
In an era which is increasingly enabling and empowering remote work and digital nomadism – why isn’t the mini-Croatia in Dublin and the like thinking about basing here? If only during the “off-season”. It sure is sunnier. And with making use of empty spaces – all CHC had to do was knock on the door and ask (how novel). CHC prove it is possible.
Initiatives like these – a pilot project in the eyes of CHC, but hopefully an enduring one – are bringing life back. It no longer needs to be a smoky cafe and people futilely talking about politics when (if) you return. It’s connection with a cultured hit.
It seems there could be. As we sat at Marulus Bar last night – and had this unique stone-walled bar (with smoke free zone) entirely to ourselves – Marina shared stories of the large number of people reaching out to CHC from outside of Split (its official base) and applauding them for their efforts. I had the pleasure of doing it in person. In one of countless cities ripe for cultural and digital nomad disruption.
PRAZNINE 2020 is filling the void you may be experiencing this Winter, and runs until 7th March 2020. To see the full calendar and full event descriptions, and bios of the artists (in English and Croatian, visit the page on Culture Hub Croatia’s website or the Facebook event page.
Want to know more about being a digital nomad in Croatia? Follow the dedicated TCN section.
